We Teach Bridge!
Location & Time: Our two locations are the Decatur (Georgia) Recreation Center and the Decatur YMCA. Our format is to discuss the day’s topic for 25 minutes, then play appropriate hands for 65 minutes. At the end of each hand, we have a one to two minute discussion where the Declarers and Defenders can tell the class about their hands’ bidding, leads, plans, play, and defense. We do not keep score.
Teachers: David and Carol Warlick conduct the classes. David is a certified bridge teacher by the ACBL (American Contract Bridge League) and a Better Bridge Teacher by Audrey Grant. David is a CPA, licensed in Virginia. Both Carol and David are retired federal employees, David from the Department of Defense and Carol from the Department of Agriculture. David is also a 3-year veteran Sergeant with the Army Airborne.
Textbooks: Our primary textbooks each semester are Audrey Grant’s Bridge Basics series and the ACBL’s Bridge in the 21st Century series. We use Robert Todd’s books for advanced bidding topics. We buy these books in bulk so the students get the best price (~50% of MSRP). We follow Audrey Grant’s methods, meaning that we never ask questions of students who do not have a raised hand.
One Chapter per Week: The discussion for each class is exactly one chapter or one topic of a textbook. We expect students to read the chapter before class and to complete the exercises. Many of our lessons are combined with suitable Best eBridge hands. The textbook and Best eBridge exercises are wonderful proof of a student’s comprehension.
Class Length: Each of our classes is 1.5 hours, consisting of 25 minutes of discussion and 65 minutes of play. During play, we allot approximately 5 minutes of discussion on what were winning techniques for each hand played. In total, we have about 30 minutes of discussion and 60 minutes of play.
Paper Notes: We provide written notes for each class. In general, our original notes are written as a chapter outline in Microsoft OneNote and as a “lecture” in Microsoft Word. Our notes frequently include supplementary information not found in the day’s chapter. All notes are pre-punched with 3 holes.
Internet Notes: You can find our class notes in Word format on this site. You may download and use these notes freely. The notes are identical to what we use in class, except perhaps more current if there have been edits.
Pedagogy: The benefit of the Audrey Grant method is that it is research based. Thousands of students have used her textbooks. Hundreds of teachers have used her lesson plans. Students study just one topic in each class. Audrey Grant’s textbooks use modern pedagogical techniques (eg, colors, large fonts, short paragraphs, simple sentences, call-out boxes, bidding tables, chapter summaries, and hand analyses). Audrey Grant provides coded cards for each lesson, so that the hands are quick and easy to deal. Students get to play hands as Declarer, Dummy, and Defenders that require the skills taught that day. For the first four hands per day, each player is the Declarer once.
Schedule: Our 2016-17 schedule is posted at this website.
Local Play: A list of organized groups that play bridge in or near Decatur is posted at this website.
Style Guide: This bridge site is in WordPress. We have included our style guide as a page.
Best eBridge Internet Practice: We encourage students to practice techniques online. The best site for practice is Best eBridge. Many of our lectures are accompanied by such practice suggestions. Our practice suggestions are posts here, with all post names beginning with “Online Practice with [Technique]” where [Technique] is the name of a tab at Best eBridge. You may enroll for one month of free access to Best eBridge by using our access code. We love BeB because it is participatory rather than lecture, although BeB does offer excellent video content too. The access code is https://bestebridge.com/?lps=70001234.
We Teach Bridge! 